TESTIMONY OF COL. HOLBROOK.

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Col. William C. Holbrook, Seventh Vermont, testified: "That the Seventh had about 250 men present for duty on the day of the battle of Baton Rouge; that it had about 225 men in line; that it had just returned from Vicksburg, and the sick 'in quarters' were all in camp; that it had about 520 men on the sick list, of whom about 200 were in hospital; that he was field officer of the day, and was not with the regiment, and therefore had no personal knowledge of the circumstances connected with the fall of Col. Roberts, or the firing into the Twenty-first Indiana, or the alleged refusal to support that regiment; that all he knew personally was, that after the pickets were driven in he rode past the Seventh, told Col. Roberts the point of attack, and he, Col. Roberts, immediately moved the regiment to the left; that he met Gen. Williams a short distance from the regiment, who asked him the point of attack, and he told him, as near as he could judge, where the different columns of the enemy would come; that at this time he saw a great number of men running back towards the river, and remembered very distinctly Gen. Williams ordering them to halt; that they did not, and he rode in among them, and they stopped, saying they were sick men from the Twenty-first Indiana and Fourteenth Maine; that he judged there were 150 in all; that Gen. Williams told them to take care of themselves if they were sick; that he was then sent by Gen. Williams to look after the pickets on the right and left flanks, and to hold those positions at all hazards; that he never received an order or request to support the Twenty-first Indiana; that he saw no officer of that regiment until the action was over; that the

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REPORT OF COURT OF INQUIRY.

sick men of the Seventh in camp had orders to retire to the river bank, with the exception of eleven commissioned officers, all of whom were in the engagement; that he saw the regimental colors with the regiment at the Penitentiary immediately after the final falling back of the lines; that on or about Sept. 5th he received through his Quartermaster four guidons, said to have been brought from the field by John Donaghue; three of them were simple white flags with the figure 7 inscribed on them, while the other was a small United States flag, very much tattered and torn; that it had been used in the Adjutant's office as a blotter; that he heard nothing of the alleged misconduct of the regiment until he arrived at Camp Parapet, about the 24th or 25th of August; that just previous to the battle, the regiment had been on board river transports for the better part of six weeks; that at a review, a short time before the engagement, two or three companies were not represented, their services being needed to bury the dead; that about a week previous to the battle there was but ninety-five men present for duty in the entire regiment."

The report of Col. Dudley, an extract from which has been given at page 45, was read by me, and offered as a part of our case, at the end of my testimony.

* * * "The

The Court made the following report: "Board having fully weighed and considered the evidence "report as follows: It appears from the evidence that when "the Seventh was called upon to participate in the battle "of Baton Rouge it had been very much reduced in numbers, "and doubtless in morale, by the severities of the campaign

REPORT OF BOARD OF INQUIRY.

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"at Vicksburg, and by long confinement on board transports. "On the morning of the battle the regiment had present for duty about 250 men, and about 520 men sick, of whom “about 200 were in hospital. About 225 men were in line

"The Commanding Officer of the regiment-Col. Roberts"fell under the sharpest volley that was fired that day, and shortly after his fall the regiment fled about one hundred "feet to the rear and to the cover of some gullies in a disorderly manner. About two-fifths of the men present for duty did not return to position in line of battle during the day.

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46

46

46

"The only evidence to sustain the finding that the regi"ment fled about one hundred feet, is that of Lieut.-Col. Elliott, which as we have seen stands alone, and came from "a swift witness and is contradicted by all the officers of the "regiment. The finding that two-fifths of the regiment did not "return to the line, after this alleged flight, was manufac"tured. It is absolutely unsupported by evidence and I defy any one to find in the testimony any warrant for it. "It appears that early in the action Lieut.-Col. Fullam "had been dispatched by his Colonel to see to the firing of a battery which was endangering the regiment. That Major Holbrook was field-officer of the day. Upon the fall of "the Colonel, therefore, the command of the regiment devolved temporarily upon Captain, now Major, Porter, who seems to “have behaved creditably in a trying position. When the Lieut"Colonel returned he assumed command of the regiment.'

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46

46

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REPORT OF BOARD OF INQUIRY.

"So far as any evidence appears, it would seem that the "line-officers behaved well during the day."

"It appears that the Seventh, or a part of it, did fire into "the Twenty-first Indiana, but there is an exculpation to be "found in the testimony of the commanding officer of the "Indiana regiment, Capt. Grimsley, to wit:

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Occupying the position they did, the Seventh had no means of knowing where we were. My impression is, "when we received the two volleys from the Seventh, we ran "under a fire which was already going on."

"It appears also, from the testimony of various witnesses, "that the field was covered by a dense fog and smoke, so "that it was quite impossible to distinguish a friend from а foe at the distance the regiments were apart; and, moreover, that the position of the Indiana regiment was frequently changed."

"It does not appear that any orders were communicated "to the Vermont regiment during the day which they disobeyed.

.6

"It appears that the colors of the regiment were retained by the color guard during the action, and were brought off "the field by the color guard when the regiment fell back. "It appears that the 'Camp Colors' alleged by Capt. Manning, Fourth Massachusetts Battery, to have been brought from the camp of the Seventh by John Donaghue, were three markers in common use, and one small United "States flag, which had been used for no military purpose "for a long time previous."

It will be seen that the findings of the Court are all favor

able to the regiment, except in two particulars, i. e.: (1) In charging, that the regiment fled about one hundred feet; and (2) that two-fifths of the men did not thereafter return to line. It has already been pointed out that the preponderance of evidence is entirely against the first of these findings; whereas, the second was invented, there being no evidence to support it. But let us suppose that there was a flight covering the enormous space of one hundred feet, and that there were "some gullies" at the end of the distance, was it such an uncommon incident, or was it such an heinous offence as to merit condemnation in General Orders? It seems to me it was not. The most experienced soldiers have been known to seek shelter from a deadly fire, and frequently it is the part of prudence to do so. One hundred feet, according to the usual measure, would be just the length of three and one-third of the rails of the Central Vermont Railroadsurely not such a tremendous distance, and, had all the facts been brought out, it would have been found that it was not one-tenth the space covered in the race for security run by some of the troops whom Gen. Butler saw fit to extol for gallantry in Order No. 62.

Upon the findings of the Court of Inquiry, Gen. Butler, with great affectation of pleasure, issued the following order: "HEADQUARTERS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, "NEW ORLEANS, November 20th, 1862.

"General Order No. 98.

"The Commanding General, upon the findings of the Board "of Inquiry upon the conduct of the Seventh Regiment Ver